Safety dispensing nozzle



NOV 24, 1942;; ER. slTToN ETAL 2,363,179

SAFETY DISPENSING NOZZLE y Filed sept'. 1s. 1939- v5 NTOR.

ATTORNEY gasoline.

Patented Nov. 24, 1942- l I UNITED sTATEs PATENT OFFICE SAFETYDISPENSING N OZZLE Elbert R. Sitton, Houston, and Charles J. Crassons,Fort Worth, Tex.

Application September 16, 1939, Serial No. 295,162

10 Claims.

The invention relates to nozzles such as are employed in dispensinggasoline or similar liquid. It is an object of the invention to providea nozzle of this character which will automatically shut orf thedischarge of liquid from the nozzle -when the receptacle into which theliquid is discharged has reached a certain level,

It is a. further object to provide means for controlling said nozzleadapted to shut oil the discharge of liquid when the position of thenozzle has been disturbed, as, for example, when the receptacle is movedrelative to the nozzle.

It i`s another object ofthe invention to provide means to regulate therate of discharge of liquid from the nozzle to avoid the discharge ofliquid at an excessive rate,

It is a further object of the invention to provide a means forcontrolling the discharge of liquid which is adapted for use in varioustypes of receptacles into which the liquid is discharged.

It is a further object of the invention to provide means of unseatingthe valve at the discharge end of the nozzle manually when said valve isstuck in its seat.

Various other points of novelty connected with Fig, 3 is a detail of theautomatic valve show- Y ing the same as extending within the inlet to agasoline tank.

Fig. 4 is a transverse section on the plane 4-4 of Fig. 1. f

Fig. 5 is a broken side elevation showing the rotatable ring whereby thedischarge openings may be regulated.

The improvement is adapted to be used upon discharge nozzles of varioustypes and may be used as an attachment for old nozzles now inexistenceor may be constructed as a unitary device to be sold as acomplete unit.

In the drawing is shown a body I which has a threaded end 2 forconnection with the hole or pipe 3 leading to a container for liquidsuch as The body I is provided with a valve chamber 3 having atransverse partition 4 therein with a valve-receiving opening 5. Withinsaid opening is a, Valve 6 mounted upon a stem 1 the valve chamber andprojects at 8 from the stuing box 9 on said wall. The projecting end 8is adapted to be depressed by a lever arm I0 pivoted at I I in the outerwall of the chamber.

The valve also has a guide stem I2 tting within a guide member I3 and aspring I4 is employed to hold the valve normally in closed position. Itwill be seen that the valve stem 8 when depressed will unseat the valveand allow the passagerof liquid. This is no part of the presentinvention. At the discharge end from the valve chamber is secured adischarge nipple I5. Said nipple is screwed within the end of the valvechamber and is curved so as to more easily be fitted within the end ofthe neck I6 which is understood as being connected with a receiving tanksuch as the gasoline tank upon a motor car.

The end of the nipple I5 is reduced in diameL- ter adjacent itsr endremote from the valve chamber and threaded for connection within acoupling II. Said coupling serves as a connection with a flexiblevkfloat chamber I8 secured thereto.

Between the coupling member I'I and the end I9 of the discharge nippleis a rotatable sleeve or collar 20. Said collar has a plurality oflateral openings 2| therein through which liquid from the interior maypass outwardly.

The forward end I9 of the nipple I5 has its interior passage taperedinwardly toward the passage Within the nipple thereby providing the lgenerally tapered seat indicated at 22 into which may t a tapered valvemember 23, There are lateral openings 24 in the tapered seat memberwhich may be brought into registration with the openings 2I in therotatable sleeve through'the rotative movement of said sleeve.

Housed within the coupling member I'I is a diaphragm or plate 25, whichtends to close the end of the discharge member. Said plate 25 has acentral opening 26 therein through which a valve stem 2l is extended.Said stem is connected at one end, as shown at 28, to the valve member23. This will be seen best in Fig. 3. The other end of the valve stem2'I which projects outwardly through the plate 25 is rounded at 29 tocontact with the innermost of a plurality of spherical iloat members 30.Proximate the upper end of the chamber I8 and beneath the plate 25 thereare provided a plurality of radial openings 48 which prevent air lock ofthe float members as liquid moves upwardly within such chamber,

The exible end member which extends at one end through the wall of 55ypreferably made from a spiral winding of sheet I8 upon the nozzle' is Imetal, as shown best in Fig. 2, the end of which is reenforced by a ringof sheet metal 3|.

Within this iiexible member are the oat members 30 and it iscontemplated that a plurality of said floats will be employed eachplaced in contact with the adjacent one and arranged so that theoutermost oat member will t against a shoulder 32 upon the ring 3|, thusholding the floats from being moved out of the housing.

When the valve 23 is in closed position, as shown in Fig. 3, itsometimes adheres to its seat and fails to drop back into open positionwhen the flow of the liquid is stopped. In such cases a rod 33 is usedto exert pressure against the valve to unseat it. At the forward 'endAof the rod 33 is a contact member 34 which may engage with the valve tounseat it, said contact member having lateral shoulders 35 which limitits movement downwardly against the valve. The outer endof the stem 33is connected Ywith a push button 36 which projects through a stufng box37 in the side wall of the nipple i5. Aspring 38 normally holds the pushbutton extended outwardly and it will be understood that when the pushbutton is released the spring will withdraw the stem outwardly away fromthe valve.

In order that the valve 6 may be automatically held in open positionthere is a lever arm 3B constructed in U-shape, as shown in Fig. 4, withthe ends thereof secured upon a pivot member 40 which, as shown in Fig.l, is supported on the lower side of the nipple I5. It is extendedthrough a supporting collar formed upon a plate 4| secured upon saidnipple by welding or other equivalent means. This U-shaped arm isadapted to engage with the underside of the lever arm SD, which operatesthe valve. There is an oppositely extending U-shaped arm 42 mounted uponthe pin 40. The forward end of this arm is curved slightly to engagebeneath the inner flange 43 upon the neck' Il of the tank. With thisdevice it will be understood that when the nozzle is inserted within theneck 44 of the tank the forward arm i2 will engage beneath the rim 43and move the opposite arm 39 upwardly against the valve operating arm I3and open the valve. Should the tank be moved relative to the nozzle, aswhen the vehicle is moved away from the nozzle, the lever 42 will bereleased and the arm 39 will drop to allow the valve to close, thusshutting on the discharge of gas.

In the normal operation of the nozzle the forward end thereof will beinserted into the gasoline tank or other similar receptacle with theforward float chamber I8 extending into the neck of the tank. The end4'2 of the control lever will be engaged beneath the flange d3, as shownin Fig. 2, thus causing the opposite arm to open the valve, allowing thedischarge of gasoline or other liquid. If the valve 23 is closed 'andwill not readily unseat to allow the discharge of liquid through theopenings 2l and 24, the push rod 33 may be operated to release thevalve. Gasoline will then be discharged through the openings 2| and 24into the neck of the tank. The size of the opening through which theliquid is discharged will be regulated as shown in Fig. 5. The sleeve 20is rotated relative to the inner end of the nipple so that the resultingopening shown at d6 in Fig. 5 will Vbe sufficient to allow the liquid tobe discharged at the proper rate. The sleeve 2D may be fixed in thisposition by means of set screws 41.

When the valve 23 is in open position vthe end of the stem 21 willcontact with the oat members 30 in the float chamber. It has been foundthat when the discharge of gasoline or semiliquid from the nozzle is atan excessive rate such that the passage through the openings 2| will notfreely receive it the valve 23 will begin to close. Discharge of theliquid at an excessive rate is undesirable as it causes the liquid tooverflow at the upper end of the neck even though the tank is onlypartially full. The flow from the nozzle through the openings 2| causesa reduction of pressure adjacent the valve 23 sufficient to cause it tobe moved toward closed position, thus throttling the flow of liquid andin case the flow is sufficiently rapid the valve may be entirely closeduntil the rate of ow has been reduced.

When the tank has been sufficiently lled so that the float members 30are gradually submerged, as shown in Fig. 3, the point will be reachedwhere the buoyancy of the float members will raise the valve 23 toclosed position, as shown in that gure. Thus the discharge of gasolinewill be automatically shut off when the tank has been lled to thedesired amount. It will be obvious, of course, that a further amount ofgasoline may be discharged into the tank through the use of thehand-operated valve control member 33. When the nozzle is then withdrawnfrom the tank the lever arm 42 will be released and the valve 6 willautomatically close.

The float chamber as here constructed is flexible and may be bent toconform to the passage into which it is inserted. The floats, beingseparate members, will be able to move in said chamber even where it iscurved. It is thus assured that the floats will act, when submerged, tobear against the stem 2l and move the valve in spite of any curvature ofthe flexible chamber.

It will be seen that the nozzle constructed as described will beautomatic in its action so that the personal attendant in a fillingstation may start the flow of gas and then busy himself with otherduties, while the tank is being filled. The nozzle will provide for theautomatic shutting off of the gasoline as soon as the tank has beenfilled to the desired level. It will thus be seen that an automaticallycontrolled discharge member has been provided which willA assure theoperator that the flow of gasoline from the nozzle will be shutoffbefore any overflow of gasoline from the tank can take, place. Theadvantages of this construction will be obvious to those skilled inthe-art.

What is claimed is:

1. A dispensing nozzle including a pipe, a manually operatedA valvetherein, a discharge nipple, an inwardly tapered valve seat therein withlateralopenings, a tapered valve within said nipple forwardly of saidopening, a forwardly extending stem on said tapered valve, and a floatmember coacting with said stern tomove said valve into engagement withsaid tapered seat.

2. A dispensing nozzle including a pipe, a. manually operatedvalve-therein, a stem on said valve, an operating arm adapted to engagesaid stem, means adapted to be moved by contact with a container to movesaid arm to open said valve, a discharge nipple, an inwardlytaperedvalve seat therein with lateral openings, a tapered valvein confrontingrelation with and movable relative to said seat, a-stem on said taperedvalve, and a float member-coacting With said stem to move said valveinto engagement with said tapered seat.

3. A dispensing nozzle including a discharge nipple having lateralopenings therein, means to regulate the size of said openings, a valvemovable to and from position closing said openings, a stem on saidvalve, a cylindrical float chamber attached to said discharge nipple, aplurality of spherical oat members in said chamber, said members beingmovable when submerged in liquid to contact said stem and close saidvalve.

4. A dispensing nozzle including a dischargev nipple, an inwardlytapered seat in the outlet end thereof, said seat having lateralopenings therein, a valve member tapered to t said seat, a flexiblefloat member extending beyond said valve, a plurality of separatelymovable loat members therein, and means on said valve to contact one ofsaid oat members and move said valve.

5. In a dispensing nozzle, a discharge nipple, a

valve movable to open and close said nipple to control the discharge ofliquid from said nipple,

a llexible cylindrical float chamber at the freeV end of said nipple, aplurality of spherical float members in said chamber, and means on said"members in said chamber, a stem on said valve l projecting therefrom tocontact with one of said float members when said members are movedupwardly.

7. In a dispensing nozzle, a discharge nipple having an outlet, aninwardly tapered seat at said outlet, a valve in the nipple outwardlyfrom the seat movable to and from said seat to close or open saidoutlet, float operated means to close said valve, a push rod in saidnipple adjacent said valve, positioned to be moved to unseat said valveand means to limit the movement of said rod.

8. A dispensing nozzle including a valve body, a discharge nipplethereon, a valve in said body movable to close the passage therethrough,a stem on said valve projecting from said body, a lever to contact withsaid stem to move said valve, an arm pivotally mounted on said nozzleadapted to engage a container at one end whereby the other end is swunginto position to'move said lever to open said valve.

9. A dispensing nozzle including a discharge nipple having a passagewith lateral openings in the sidewalls thereof, a valve movable againstthe flow of liquid through the nipple to and from position closing saidopenings, a float chamber beyond said valve, a stem on said valveextending into said chamber, float means in the chamber adapted to movesaid stem and close the valve and means manually operable from theexterior of the nipple for opening said valve.

10. A dispensing nozzle including a discharge nipple having a passagewith lateral openings in the sidewalls thereof, a closure plate in thepassage beyond said openings, a valve movable to and from positionclosing the openings, a float chamber beyond said closure plate, a stemon said valve passing slidably through said plate and into said floatchamber, and float means in said chamber adapted to move said stem andclose said valve as liquid rises within the float chamben CHARLES J.CRASSONS. ELBERT R. SI'I'ION.

